Ok Major Pallas. I like your thinking. But can you get it past HQMC?

via War on the Rocks.

In his recent birthday ball message, the Commandant of the Marine Corps stated that the Corps can’t “lose to learn — we gotta win.” To ensure the Marines continue to win, they have to develop their training to meet the threats of the future. Right now, the Marine Corps is practicing against an open backfield and shadow boxing in the mirror — marines are often a self-licking ice cream cone patting themselves on the back when complete. It’s time to move past sustaining this model and develop the ability to conduct realistic force-on-force training.

The Marine Corps prepare for the unknown. I have always taken great pride in that marines are able to fight and win in modal domains within the spectrum of human conflict. If they are warfighters, they must train against the “anti-warfighters.” They must train against a force that is scalable, experienced, and the subject matter experts of enemy tactics, techniques and procedures. Marines have to stop training only in what they are good at and instead train for exposure to an enemy that is intimately familiar with Marine tactics, in order to expose their weaknesses and create a greater force at the outcome. To do this, the Corps should create and resource an Adversary Air Ground Task Force, or the A-AGTF.

The A-AGTF would provide a unit made up of free-thinking, breathing, adaptable individuals well-versed in enemy tactics as an adversary force for service-level training. Due to the existing “canned” tire stack, plywood, and static metal enemy force, the current training construct does not allow for rapid changes on the practice field or improvised decisions played out in execution, nor does it account for decisions made by the enemy and how they affect the decisions marines make in training. Marines operate by a well-defined and scripted playbook that does not allow free thinking at the lowest levels of leadership. This problem is hard to crack — in fact it would require a complete paradigm shift in Marine Corps training philosophy — but a requisite one if the service is to truly prepare to face the threats of tomorrow.

Story here. 

Wow.

Read the story but I actually like this proposal.  Correction.  I love it!

The Major is doing two things, one of which will probably ensure his promotion.  Let's talk about him punching his ticket (oh and I have no problem with that as long as it's because you've done something worthy of promotion).

Dude has taken the Commandant's own words and "actionized" them.  He has devised a plan to actually make training more meaningful and realistic.

The second thing he's done will probably see him on most wanted posters by Think Tanks.

The Major's schemes will give us an opportunity to take all these flights of fancy and get them from around meeting tables, water coolers etc...out into the field where these free thinking adversary forces can either confirm or fuck beyond recognition the favored concepts being pushed.

I would bet body parts that in a REAL scenario, a 1000 mile raid by a Company Landing Team will end in horror unless it is MASSIVELY supported.  That fantasy that Amos ran with students from Infantry Officer Course was batshit stupid on a stick.  Nothing was certified, nothing tested, they simply burned aviation gas and the boots yelled cool.

This proposal could actually put such concepts to the test.

I like it!

I'll bet money it'll never happen though.  Concept guys don't like to be told that they "don't have any clothes"...just like the mythical king.